> > This has been brought up before and I personally do not really like the
> > idea too much, i think it makes the distro less reliable as whole if we
> > add options like this. People will start using repositories here and
> > there and in the end we will get bugreports on ebuilds we never approved
> > or even saw (and some ebuilds can have far reaching effects). No, i
> > think 'external distributors' should try and go trough the normal
> > channels and get their ebuilds Gentoo approved.
>
> I think a note saying "DON"T DO THIS UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE
> DOING", as is done elsewhere would suffice. Given the recent volume on
> ebuild approval, that's not much of an counter-argument. I agree that
> inclusion in Gentoo-proper is a worthy goal - but as a user, not being
> restricted to blessed packages should be my choice (and of course, no
> one's under any obligation to support any of this to begin with, but
> it's worth discussing). Maybe I'm less scared of stability issues
> running Gentoo on a home box that could erupt into flames without
> causing me much distress, but this should be a matter of choice, rather
> than a policy enforced by software. Such a scheme may actually speed up
> package acceptance, as it provides a wider test base prior to inclusion.

I'll begin by saying I have some issues with Debian these days. Take my
opinions with a Syberian salt mine if you like.
I must warn that although Debian's preferred package system (but not its
only one) happens to support more than one source for packages, these
packages almost all are made by Debian developers or people who would be
developers if not for the "internal issues" which have so turned me off
from that project. Nearly all of the packages in question are intended to
be part of the Debian distribution eventually.
Gentoo provides a mechanism for the most common thing non-Debian sources
are used for: things which really aren't ready for the average user, even
in unstable. If it isn't ready, Gentoo will simply keep it masked. The
adventurous will unmask it by hand.
The other thing it's used for is for in Debian is a place to put things
that Debian will not accept because they're all a bunch of spineless
cowards who don't want to risk annoying the media conglomerates and
similar. Everything Debian wouldn't take that I've actually wanted is in
Gentoo already, so I doubt that will be a big deal.
I will say that Debian's size is one of its biggest problems. You just
can't make 11,000 packages stable on 12 different architectures for a
stable release. It's less of a problem for Gentoo since we're dealing
with source here, but it's still significantly difficult. To Gentoo's
credit, the portage tree operates already the way Debian's package pool
was supposed to work as designed by a few of us Debianites (I was among
them) as far back as 1998 or so to cope with Debian's size/stability
issues. Five years later, Debian's package pools still don't work the way
we specced it. Gentoo's system does.
Guess which Linux dist I'm writing this email from? ;)
- --
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@×××.org> Do not write in this space
"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
-- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward
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